Mad Dog

And they are still looking quite lost.

You know..... usually when a new coach comes in, the team *at least* starts showing some sense of urgency and is playing with energy.  But alas, not this team.  I realize the Avs is one of the best teams in the league, but Christ... you are playing at home, for a new coach, against the goalie named Justus Annunen, and you are getting outshot and outhustled (especially in their own zone) like they just don't care...  

And Couturier still plays like he just doesn't want to be there.  I really don't know what's wrong with him.  Only last year he was winning just about every single loose puck battle.  And tonight, he makes Nazem Kadri look like MacDavid.  

6 minutes ago, pilldoc said:

This will change nothing. This run of mediocrity or worse goes back to 2012 and since then there has been Berube. Hakstol. AV. So three coaches, same ****.

 

Over that same time 5 players have been with Flyers: Giroux, Coots, Laughton. Ghost. Vorachek…. Ghost and Vorachek are gone. 

 

Also over that same period we have had three GMs… Homer, Hextall and Fletcher. 

 

Over that time … two owners Ed Snyder and Comcast 

 

So not sure anything will change until the common threads of mediocrity are eliminated 

Interestingly enough, since his departure from the Flyers, Berube won the Cup with the Blues during his first year.  And since then, the team has been consistently one of the favorites to win the Cup.  Hmmmm..... Why do I think it's gotta be something different than a coach?

4 minutes ago, pilldoc said:

 

Why would he want to come back?  He had his time here .....and remember we all bitched and moaned that he did not play the younger players.  What do you think would happen this time around ......

OK, but that was a completely different team... a team full of veterans like Recchi, Primeau, Roenick, Zhamnov, etc.  This would be a drastically different situation he would be walking into.  Not saying he would be the right fit for this team or the team would be the right fit for him.  But I don't know who at this point can coach this mess.

3 minutes ago, flyercanuck said:

 

Clearly it was pure luck. Or he wouldn't have waited until the 5th round. 

Or this was actually a case of one team doing a better scouting job compared to the others and waiting late.  He selected Joel Ericksson Ek in the 1st and Jordan Greenway in the 2nd. Just seems odd to me. 

Serious question.  If Hitch is interested, would you bring him back?

2 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

Yes. Why?

Because I am wondering whether he knew what he was doing or got lucky.  He went in 5th round.  Very unlike Fletcher, unless, again, he simply hit a dumb luck.

I forgot... Did Fletch draft Kaprizov?  Or was it already under Guerin?  Honest question; I don't remember.

9 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

Between the maggot-riddled corpse of an organization and the prices of the tickets, why would anyone pay the money?

 

For what?  For who?

To see the Flyers ice girls skating around.  What else is there to see?  

So effing tired of this BS. Year after year it's exact same crap.  People in charge change, their roles change, players change, but nothing really changes with this organization.  There is no logic, no plan, no system, no nothing with them.....  I really think they would be better of selling the team and moving it someplace else.  We will feel crummy for a while, but will get over it considering the eternal frustration we will lose along with the Flyers.

The Flyers, as a franchise, are completely inept and incompetent.

Just shaking my head in disgust... No words.... Just no words left.  This is the ugliest it's been in a while.

1 minute ago, Digityman said:

It's time for AV and crew to go.  

 This team is uncoachable.  But sadly, a coach is ordinarily the first casualty when the ship starts sinking like a rock.

Maaaaaan.  What a collection of losers this team is.  There is not a single redeeming thing about this team.

Of all the Flyers' problems right now, I see our Selke Trophy winner, $62M boy is the major one.  I would be interested to find out what the heck is wrong with him.  His game has not just deteriorated.  It's unrecognizable... to the point he looks like a completely different player.  This is the worst hockey he is playing in his career.  Forget scoring.  He is not contributing ANYWHERE on the ice.  I'd like to think there is some reason for that; you don't suddenly lose your skills. But right now, it's a major issue, which, I hoe is fixable. 

I am turning off this atrocity.  Let the Titanic sink...

50 minutes ago, MaineFlyFan said:

Aren't the Rags like 14-4-3 or something?!...

 

Can we just play the ****** sabres or OTT already!? Jeez!

 

I can't really remember the last time we played a bottom feeder...I know it's no excuse but man... it's been Wash/Car/FL/Tampa....all power houses lately! Even NJ (who gives us fits anyway) is vastly better than years past!...

 

Watching Aho play the other night was an eye opener for me....We don't have one of those do we?

 

Ah, anyway. I haven't given up on this group YET. Heck, hockey is one of the few things to look forward to in these LONG winters up here...

 

Figures, we get not decent, but in my opinion excellent play from the crease of late, and have NOTHING to support it or show from it. Makes me start to worry about Hart again.....we're gonna "break him" aren't we?!

 

(Tried my best to end on a positive note....)

We played the Devils just several days ago... not a true bottom-feeder, but not a power house, either.  And the Flyers managed to get completely embarrassed, which isn't a difficult thing for them to do these days anyway.

I heat you about Aho.  I was at the Carolina game at home last Friday... what a pathetic performance that was.  But man... Aho is a terrific player without a doubt.  When you see him live, you get to realize how good he really is.  Everything about his game is just right.

I think if they get blown out again tonight, the changes are inevitable.  It simply can't continue like this...

3 minutes ago, Fizz said:

Agreed, along with the whole coaching staff.

Not sure AV is to blame.  No coach would be able to do much with this hot mess.

1 hour ago, RonJeremy said:

I laugh when they say ,Thompson, Brassard and Hayes BF Charlie Brown are injured ..these are fourth line stiffs that bring no offense to the team at all, its just more excuses.  

I was watching the game the other night and Jim Jackson was making that excuse... as if these are the players of Nate MacKinnon's caliber we are talking.  LMAO.  I wanted to scream at my TV screen: get real, Jimmy!!!

6 minutes ago, pilldoc said:

but simply put the NHL has changed and the Flyers as a whole have failed to adapt to the new NHL.  

You know... as I was sitting through that nightmare of a game last Friday against Carolina, I was thinking: the team they are playing right now knows what it means to adjust and learn.  The game has changed and the NHL teams (most of them, anyway) adapted accordingly. But the Flyers - I swear, out of their own stubbornness, arrogance, and bullheadedness - just refuse to do that.  I just can't explain it.  It's almost like they want to think that they play in their own league.

1 hour ago, GratefulFlyers said:

Wow seeing it live must’ve been excruciating. What the hell could be going on to make Couturier, one of the best in the league at one-on-one battles, refuse to compete? How bad must team morale be to get that guy to quit? 

It was brutal and sickening to watch that, especially considering the fact that we are talking the winner of the Selke Trophy only 2 years ago.  Something must be going on in the locker room.... The whole team looked completely disinterested.  And after the second Aho's goal, the whole team just lied down and died. This was the worst effort I have seen from Orange & Black in the last several years. 

12 minutes ago, pilldoc said:

as a point of reference…. Pettersson is massively struggling in Vancouver right now. I know he has a big upside but right now he is flat out struggling. Still plenty if time for him to turn it around….

 The whole Vancouver team is struggling and Pettersson is struggling with them.  They look very similar to the Flyers this year.

44 minutes ago, GratefulFlyers said:

 

Yes I've been saying this since the season started, a few games in. You can see it watching on tv.  Everything about him is slowed down and weaker than it's ever been - skating, passing, shooting and positioning are all just weak.

 He literally looks horrible... A Tin Man on ice.  I remember vividly during that game where he stood no further than 4 feet away from Svechnikov when both battled for loose puck.  Being so tall and, supposedly, stronger, he could've just overpowered Svechnikov.  Yet, he didn't even seem to make an effort.  Last year, he would've had that puck with ease.  Instead, he basically did nothing.  Svechnikov got a puck, skated aorund him, and made a shot on net, in the process making Couturier looking like a poor man's Derian Hatcher on that play.  Svechnikov looked surprised how easily Couturier gave up on the play.  There was zero effort.  The guy who was sitting next to me just looked equally puzzled and we both shook our heads... Disgusting. 

19 minutes ago, Tomdog said:

Giroux is not your problem, he is the indicator of your problem. 
Chuck Fletcher is your problem, start over from the top down. 
look at what Minnesota did with a good GM. 

 The minute they replaced him with Hextall, I knew right away this was going to be a disaster... not that Hexy was anything special.

9 hours ago, radoran said:

 

Giroux is not *the* problem, but he's also not not a problem.

 

If your best player just isn't as good as the best players on other teams, that's not not a problem.

Fair enough.  I think the most accurate way to put it: while he is not the problem, he isn't being much of a solution, either.  One can wonder though, how much one player can do... It's almost like when a ship is caught in a 185 miles-per-hour sea storm, how much can one expect the captain to save the vessel from a sea wreckage?  The way this team was built is an absolute nightmare.  They have no pieces.  We were counting on Konecny.  He is a non-factor, and that's putting it nicely. Atkinson has also disappointed. Maybe some people didn't expect much from him, but I did.  The guy is capable of scoring.  Only 3 years ago, he scored 69 points and 41 goals in Columbus. In 2016, he scored 62 points.

And while we are at it, let's not leave our $26M man Couturier out of it. I was at the Carolina game last Friday and specifically focused on him.  The guy looks lost.  Plain lost.  I don't know what his problem is.  If it was playoffs, I would think he is playing injured and they are just not telling us.  But physically, he looked perfectly fine to me.  But he looks unmotivated and just like he doesn't know what to do out there.  He looks a shadow of what he was in the last 2 years.  I would say he *almost* plays the way he was playing in his rookie year.  It's plain scary to watch him pay these days.

I mean if Giroux ends up getting traded, it will probably not be because of his poor play.  It will be a beginning of rebuilding process.  I get it.  But I am pissed how incompetent and ineffective Fletcher is.  I was mad at Hextall, but at least I could see what he was doing.  There was a structure in his work.  One can say it had flaws, but it least I could follow what he was doing.  What this current moron is doing - I have no clue.  And the worst part yet - it doesn't look like he does, either.